Slavery and Race

American Slavery - The Complete StoryGerald A. Foster, Ph.D

Abraham Lincoln is hailed as the "great emancipator" because he
supposedly risked his political future as well as the fragile foundation
of the relatively new republic, to end slavery. This is indeed a noble
version of American history and one that has inflamed and incited
partisans for nearly 140 years. However, the truth, which is always
relative and not absolute, is that Lincoln's one and only priority was to
preserve a fragile Union that was in the throes of the Industrial
Revolution and intense sectional antagonism, not to free the slaves. The
political agenda was integrally intertwined with an economic agenda, both
of which had far reaching international implications well beyond the
purview of slavery. Unfortunately, the issue of slavery still remains the
supreme bogey of American black-white race relations.

Two of the most unnecessarily divisive issues today have their genesis in
slavery--reparations and the confederate flag. In an August 2, 1862
letter to Horace Greeley, Abraham Lincoln made his position on slavery
crystal clear, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the
Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by
freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing
some and leave others alone, I would also do it." He was true to his
words when, in September 1862, Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation freeing only those slaves who were in states which were "in
rebellion against the United States." Journalist Brent Staples states,
"Historians working on business records are showing that the good, rich
citizens of the Northeast were vigorously seeking business with Southern
slavers and trafficking in slaves even after abolitionists had seized the
day and Northeastern states had outlawed the slave trade." We now are
beginning to see a much clearer picture of slavery and its most vital
role in the emergence of 19th century America as a world economic
colonial power. In the 139 years since slavery officially ended, it has
continued to excite, incite and polarize America primarily because the
term is inextricably attached to the issue of race. However, the ultimate
irony is that in most if not all arenas of socio-political discourse,
race is rapidly becoming a non-entity. In the 2000 United States Census
there were sixty-eight different and distinct self-reported racial
categories, showing that race has already become demographically extinct.
Yet, we must hasten to add that racism is just as virulent and divisive
as it has ever been. The institution of racism is the omnipresent progeny
of the nineteenth and twentieth century manifestations of slavery and its
bedfellow, race.

How did slavery and race become so patently intertwined as distinctly
American phenomena? Slavery in America was different from any other
corner of the world primarily because in America it was viewed early on
as the primary foundation upon which an emerging republic could solidify
its economic primacy in the global commerce of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Two hundred and twenty-eight years of free labor
will assure business success anywhere in the cosmos. However, the social
and political dilemma for a new republic was how to justify public
professions of equality, individual rights and democracy while at the
same time holding fast to African captives who had been systematically
and mentally dehumanized and designated as personal property. Therein lay
the challenge for the founding fathers and the signers of the Declaration
of Independence (1776) as well as the United States Constitution (1787).
This marked the beginning of contentious race relations in America that
persist to this day. False sciences and religious zealotry were the
primary fervent justifications for how black slaves were treated and for
the terror and brutality that flourished well into the twentieth century,
decades after slavery was legally ended.

Social and political illusionists who purveyed racial inferiority,
genetic deficiencies, primal instinct and infantile proclivities
successfully convinced a nation that it was in fact acceptable to treat
blacks as property because it was scientifically and religiously
sanctioned and preordained. In reality, it was a perverted extension of
manifest destiny.

On this issue, we as a nation have miles to go before we sleep

President Clinton upon leaving office in 1999 empanelled a blue ribbon
committee on race; similarly in 1999, the New York Times undertook what
was considered the most controversial and ambitious journalistic project
in its history, How Race is Lived in America. One of the most widely
anticipated Supreme Court decisions in 25 years was handed down in June
2003 concerning the propriety of race as a key consideration in college
admissions policies and procedures.

If we are to progress in the global and diverse political economy of the
twenty-first century, we must expand our discussions on slavery to heal
our wounds of race and the malignancy of racism. In spite of its
longstanding racial foibles, America is still a land of unlimited
opportunity for those who are willing to be intellectually courageous
enough to discount the rhetoric of the race mongers and purveyors of hate
who persist in advancing agendas that alienate and polarize rather than
heal and conciliate.

A more balanced discussion of slavery is a critical first step in this
heretofore road not taken
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